


linked hands

by orphan_account



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-08
Updated: 2013-08-08
Packaged: 2017-12-22 19:59:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/917441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>pacific rim au where kyouko and sayaka are jaeger co-pilots.</p>
            </blockquote>





	linked hands

the first time sayaka sees kyouko it’s across the mess hall. her head is thrown back, mouth wide, and laughter pours out of her. she shakes with it, red hair shivering over her shoulders. there’s an apple in one hand, and a pocky stick in the other, and the whole table laughs with her, lights up because she’s lit up.

it’s the end of the world and kyouko’s laughing face is the first bright spot sayaka’s seen in a very long time.

 

the second time it’s during the drift compatibility hearings. kyouko is bouncing on the balls of her feet. there’s a sheen of sweat on her skin from the four previous matches. when she sees her come onto the mat she grins, cocky and sure and points her staff at her. come on, she says. let’s see what you’re made of.

the problem is the test is about compatability. it’s about talking and listening and learning to move together. and there’s that, it’s there, deep beneath kyouko’s need to win and sayaka’s need to prove she’s good enough, better than, trained and tried and a pilot. they go back and forth and back and forth, until kyouko’s staff slams against the side of her face.

later it’s the silence she remembers best. not the ringing in her ears after, or the stinging on her face, but the silence. kyouko’s jeering and panting and shouts stop and she freezes above her, staff held loosely in her left hand.

 

the third time is in the mess again. sayaka is sitting alone, dog tag chain twisting around her fingers, trying to breathe through her anger and frustration. kyouko drops her tray across from her and begs her to try again. sayaka doesn’t say anything, is still trying to breathe through her anger, but kyouko begs and begs and then touches her hand.

part of drift compatibility is learning to move together and anticipate one another and work together, sure. but part of it is your brain, and linking and syncing them up, and the potential to settle into the silent empty spaces of your partner’s. when kyouko touches her hands he feels that, or what that could be like.

kyouko grins because she knows she’s won.

 

the first time they drift its --

sayaka doesn’t know how to explain it, the feel of dropping into someone’s head, of navigating that and finding the silence. she doesn’t know how to talk about the way kyouko seems to wrap around her, find all the right places to be, how it feels like linking their hands together and something else altogether.

she finds it hard to stand afterward, not because everything hurts, but because everything else hurts. ending the drift felt like severing a chord somewhere inside of her, and when kyouko cocks an eyebrow at her and offers her a hand she takes it.

 

the first few nights its just lying in bed together, pressed up against each other, trying to recreate the drift. there’s a lingering feeling, like even when kyouko isn’t talking, she can hear her in her head. everyone says that’ll get stronger. other things linger, like the feeling of her collar bone beneath her cheek, and her heartbeat beneath her ribs. like the feeling of kyouko’s thumb pressed against her hip bone.

 

it’s after their third drift and the first fight, the first kaiju they’ve ever brought down together. the lingering isn’t lingering anymore, it’s a presence, it’s kyouko fitting into and around her seamlessly. she can feel herself vibrating out of her skin, part the tremor of the jaeger still in her bones, part adrenaline. they get debriefed and checked out and the sun’s rising somewhere when they finally stumble into their bunk.

kyouko laughs when they tumble into the narrow bed together, and sayaka can hear it bouncing off the walls, but filling up her head, too. she knows kyouko is going to kiss her before their mouths meet, before kyouko pushes her down onto the mattress and presses her palms into hers. her bun’s come loose and red hair pours over her shoulder, brushing sayaka’s cheek.

it slows down -- it shouldn’t, everything should speed up right now right now rightnow -- but then it isn’t anymore and sayaka is laugh-kissing and jerking kyouko’s t-shirt up. at some point, she loses track of who’s doing what, whose hips are pressing down and whose are pressing up, whose mouth is pressed up against whose neck, whose hands are undoing buckles and pushing down pants and jerking at elastic.

she knows it’s definitely her jerks up when kyouko’s hair brushes her thighs, the bun all gone, her mouth red from kissing. it’s kyouko that smirks before pushing her back down, before pressing a kiss against her thigh and then up and up, and its her, sayaka, that doesn’t bother to stifle the noise that comes out of her mouth.

 

its both of them, later, that wind down slowly, and curl up and around each other, that try to fill the empty spaces the drift left. both of them that press slow, sleepy kisses into each others hair and faces and shoulders.

 

(and even later it’s sayaka that holds kyouko down, and grins and grins and grins.)

 


End file.
